Beggar thy neighbor's question
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Piers Morgan, "The wife-beater, the witch and the White House: Why the hell did Trump ever tell Rob Porter and Omarosa ‘you’re hired’?", Daily Mail 2/13/2018:
'Shut the f**k up, a**hole,’ snarled Omarosa Manigault-Newman at me. ‘How are your kids going to feel when they wake up and discover their dad’s a f**king f*gg*t?’
Yes, this is the same Omarosa Manigault-Newman who just spent a year inside Donald Trump’s White House.
I’ve met a lot of vile human beings in my life, from dictators and terrorists to sex abusers and wicked conmen.
But I’ve never met anyone quite so relentlessly loathsome as Omarosa; a vicious, duplicitous, lying, conniving, backstabbing piece of work.
Which beggars the question: what the hell was she doing inside the world’s most powerful building for 12 months?
LLOG has got some history with begging the question, e.g.
"'Begging the question': we have answers", 4/29/2010
"'Begging the question': we have examples", 5/1/2010
"It begs the way we see the world", 4/22/2014
But beggaring the question?
Maybe Mr. Morgan means that Ms. Manigault-Newman's loathsomeness exhausts the resources of the question, or goes beyond the question. Or maybe he's just lexicalized "beg the question", in the common meaning of "raise the question", as "beggar the question" — which makes just about as much sense as "beg the question", if we think of circumstances pleading for us to ask the question, like a beggar begging us to give them some money.
Anyhow, it turns out this is Out There, in published books:
[link] However, this beggars the question which has bedevilled the law of limitations, namely: 'when does the time … first accrue?'
[link] So once again this beggars the question: Why would they, meaning the murderer, have wanted to do this to me?
[link] Yet this assertion beggars the question as to what constitutes being beyond good and evil?
And in news articles:
[link] It sounds like a fair response, but it also beggars the question of just how practical this advice is, and whether or not it will actually end up bringing the situation under control.
[link] And that beggars the question “how much money has this country dished out over the last 20 years (ONLY) on subsidising/bailing out the likes of BahamasAir, Bank of Bahamas, (100 million to Bahamas Resolve) BAMSI, Water & Sewerage Corp, BEC/BPL, National Insurance?
[link] It beggars the question if Arsenal are heading down the right path.
Martin Holterman said,
February 13, 2018 @ 9:16 pm
I assume he had "beggars belief" in the back of his head and got them mangled together.
AntC said,
February 13, 2018 @ 10:37 pm
Even those who were inside the White House these past 12 months don't seem to know what Omarosa was doing there. In two senses: why was she hired? (Morgan's question) What were her responsibilities/was she carrying them out? (Gen. Kelly's question, allegedly)
I guess to be the token Black woman/decorative rather than useful.
Yes, @Martin H; everything about this (alleged) administration beggars belief. But isn't Morgan supposed to be a supporter of Trump/has he a leg to stand on? He's so relentlessly and vapidly contrarian I lose track.
Rodger C said,
February 14, 2018 @ 7:48 am
Obviously he meant "buggers the question."
Ross Presser said,
February 14, 2018 @ 5:15 pm
This question buggered the bursar.
Viseguy said,
February 15, 2018 @ 9:02 pm
Which buggeries the question: Where does it end?
George said,
February 16, 2018 @ 11:51 am
From one of the linked threads:
Romy Schneider said,
May 1, 2010 @ 6:40 pm
Heard on the news in Australia:
Beggaring the question
Richard said,
February 18, 2018 @ 5:56 pm
It took me two analytical philosophy courses in college to learn that "begs the question" means "is a circular argument," then 10 more years to accept that it now also means "raises the question," and now it's a new phrase altogether. I just can't keep up.